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Selected workshop posts from Madam Mayo blog archive 2006-2022
> See also Fab Free Workshop Stuff
Since 2006 I’ve been posting here at Madam Mayo for my workshop students and anyone else interested in creative writing, addressing a range of topics from time management to technical aspects of craft, advice on publishing, and recommended tools.* In recent years these workshop-related posts have become more frequent (yes, there will be a book); in 2020 and 2021 look for a workshop post on the second Monday of the month.
UPDATE: The end of March 2022 marks the 16th anniversary of this blog, after which point, until further notice, I will be posting approximately two Mondays a month. The workshop post will continue on the second Monday, however every other month. Look for the next workshop post on May 9, 2022.
*I’ve taught at various venues over the years, from a one-hour workshop as a fellow at Bread Loaf Writers Conference to a semester on fiction writing at Johns Hopkins University, several panels and workshops at the San Miguel Writers Conference, privately in Mexico City, and over many years, from 1999-2017, Techniques of Fiction, Literary Travel Writing, and other workshops at the Writer’s Center.
= MOST RECENT WORKSHOP POST =
John Steinbeck’s Use of Wigged-Out Exaggeration
in Travels with Charley
September 12, 2022
= WORKSHOP POSTS BY TOPIC =
scroll on down…
READING LISTS
Recommended Literary Travel Memoirs
March 8, 2021
Recommended Books on the Creative Process
February 8, 2021
Recommended Books on the Craft of Creative Writing
January 11, 2021
ON YOUR FOREMOST WRITERLY RESOURCE:
CREATIVE POWER + ATTENTIONAL FOCUS
Five Perhaps Apparently Silly
But Ultra-Serious Reflections
on Nurturing Creative Thought
(Starting with Beethoven’s Ninth)
May 9, 2022
This Writer’s PFWP and NTDN Lists:
Two Tools for Resilience and Focus
February 10, 2020
Donald M. Rattner’s My Creative Space
January 13, 2020
Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less
by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
July 8, 2019
This Writer’s Distraction Free Smartphone (DFS):
First Quarter Update
April 8, 2019
A Slam-dunk (if Counterintuitive) Strategy to
Simultaneously Accelerate, Limber Up,
and Steady the Writing Process
March 11, 2019
It Can Be Done! This Writer’s Distraction Free Smartphone (DFS),
Plus an App Evaluation Flowchart to Tailor-Make Your Own
January 13, 2019
Jaron Lanier’s Ten Arguments for Deleting
Your Social Media Accounts Right Now
July 8, 2018
Email Ninjerie in the Theater of Space-Time or,
This Writer’s 10-Point Protocol for Inbox 10 (ish)
December 12, 2016
Five 2 Word Exercises for Practicing Seeing as a Literary Artist in the Airport
(or the Mall or the Train Station or the University Campus or the Car Wash, etc.)
October 10, 2016
Cal Newport’s Deep Work; Study Hacks Blog, and on Quitting Social Media
September 26, 2016
Adios, Facebook!
The Six Reasons Why I Deactivated My Account
August 12, 2015
So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport
June 1, 2015
Thirty Deadly-Effective Ways to Free Up Bits, Drips &
Gimungously Vast Swaths of Time for Writing:
A Menu of Possibilities
July 2, 2014
The Arc of Writerly Action
June 13, 2011
ON WRITING LOGLINES
Writing Loglines and the Concept of “the Eyespan”
February 22, 2012
ON USING YOUR IMAGINATION
More on Seeing as an Artist or,
The Rich Mine of Stories About Those Who “See” the Emperor’s Clothes
January 11, 2022
Conjecture: The Powerful, Upfront, Fair and Square Technique
to Blend Fiction into Your Nonfiction
May 11, 2020
On Seeing as an Artist or, Five Techniques for a Journey to Einfühlung
October 24, 2016
ON WRITING MORE VIVIDLY
John Steinbeck’s Use of Wigged-Out Exaggeration
in Travels with Charley
September 12, 2022
Bringing in the Body
December 13, 2021
Verbszzzz… or Verbs!
November 8, 2021
Fearless Fabian /
Plus From the Archives:
“The Vivid Dreamer” Writing Workshop
from the Guadalupe Mountains National Park
September 13, 2021
Writing More Vivid Descriptions
(Start by Leaving the Smartphone Off)
August 9, 2021
MYSTERY & TASTE
Duende and the Importance of Questioning ELB
September 14, 2020
ON REVISION
Itty Bitty But Bold! From the Archives:
“Revision: Take a Chainsaw to Those Little Darlings, Prune, Do No Harm,
Be an Archaeologist, Move the Furniture Onto the Front Lawn, Flip the Gender”
October 11, 2021
ON WORKING LIBRARIES AND FILES
The Texas Bibliothek’s Digital Doppelgänger:
My Online Working Library of Rare Books
March 1, 2021
A Working Library: Further Notes and Tips
for Writers of Historical Fiction, Biography, History,
Travel Memoir / Essay, etc.
November 11, 2019
Working with a Working Library: Kuddelmuddel
September 24, 2018
On Organizing and Twice Moving a Working Library:
Lessons Learned of Late with the Texas Bibliothek
February 5, 2018
Decluttering a Library:
The 10 Question Could-be-a-Flowchart
January 7, 2011
WRITING PROMPTS
From the Archives:
“Giant Golden Buddha”
& 364 More 5 Minute Writing Exercises
June 14, 2021
ON POETIC TECHNIQUE
Using Rhythm and Sound to
Add Energy and Meaning to Your Prose
November 9, 2020
Grokking Scansion:
A Teensy (Albeit Painfully Tedious)
Investment for a Megamungous Payoff
in the Power of Your Prose
October 12, 2020
Using Imagery (the “Metaphor Stuff”)
February 11, 2019
Poetic Alliteration
November 12, 2018
Poetic Listing
October 8, 2018
Poetic Repetition
September 10, 2018
Diction Drops and Spikes
August 13, 2018
Virginia Tufte’s Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style
June 11, 2018
Blast Past Easy: A Permutation Exercise with Clichés
May 14, 2018
Techniques of Fiction: The Number One Technique
In the Supersonic Overview
February 11, 2011
Language Overlay
July 4, 2011
ON WRITING DIALOGUE
One Dozen Dialogue Exercises
March 28, 2011
ON NARRATIVE ARCHITECTURE
Grokking Plot: The Elegant Example of
Bread and Jam for Frances
April 9, 2018
On Decluttering Your Writing or,
Respecting the Integrity of Narrative Design:
The Interior Decoration Analogy
April 25, 2011
Michael Talbot’s The Holographic Universe
July 4, 2009
ON READING AS A WRITER
Shake It Up with Emulation-Permutation Exercises
December 14, 2020
Überly Fab Fashion Blogger Melanie Kobayashi’s “Bag and a Beret”
(Further Notes on Reading as a Writer)
October 14, 2019
One Simple Yet Powerful Practice in Reading as a Writer
March 13, 2017
See also my 2011 blog, Reading Tolstoy’s War and Peace.
ON MATERIAL TOOLS
Tools for a Novel-in-Progress
July 12, 2021
A Refreshing Tweak: The Palomino Blackwing Pencil
March 9, 2020
The Easy Luxury of a Lap Desk
June 10, 2019
Q & A with Sara Mansfield Taber on
Chance Particulars: A Writer’s Field Notebook
April 23, 2018
(See also the archive of Madam Mayo blog Q & As.
Every one of these writers offers some crunchy advice.
Typosphere, Ho!
“Stay West” on My 1961 Hermes 3000
January 9, 2017
Consider the Typewriter
(Am I Kidding? No, I Am Not Kidding)
November 28, 2016
The StandStand: One Highly Recommended Way
to Keep on Writing While Standing
March 30, 2015
NOTE: You will find many more Madam Mayo posts
about typewriters and typewriting at
the Typosphere page on the main menu.
Why I Am a Mega-Fan of the Filofax
June 27, 2014
My Uncool “Cool Tool”:
Grandma’s Recipe Box Solution to Internet Password Management
January 9, 2014
ON LITERARY TRAVEL MEMOIR &
PERSONAL MEMOIR
Writing Memoir: Taber’s To Write the Past
and Conover’s Immersion
July 11, 2022
Fearless Fabian /
Plus From the Archives:
“The Vivid Dreamer” Writing Workshop
from the Guadalupe Mountains National Park
September 13, 2021
Literary Travel Writing:
Notes on Process and the Digital Revolution
September 19, 2016
From The Writer’s Carousel: Literary Travel Writing
March 17, 2009
ON WORKSHOPS
Ten Tips for Getting the Most From Your Writing Workshop
(What I Wish I Had Learned Sooner
and I Wish My Students Would Do)
August 13, 2007
WRITERS CONFERENCES
“Advice for Writers”: Spotlight on US Poet, Playwright and Translator
Zack Rogow and His Mega-Rich Resource of a Blog
September 9, 2019
AWP 2019 (Think No One is Reading Books and Litmags Anymore?)
April 1, 2019
Global Migration: People and Their Stories
(Introduction to the Panel with Elizabeth Hay,
Lisa See, Luis Alberto Urrea, and Juan Villoro
at the San Miguel Writers’ Conference)
April 18, 2016
ON PODCASTING
Podcasting for Writers: To Commit Or Not (Or Vaguely?)
January 13, 2016
ON PUBLISHING
The Manuscript is Ready–Or is It? What’s Next?
April 12, 2021
The Book As Thoughtform, the Book As Object:
A Book Rescued, a Book Attacked, and
Katherine Dunn’s Beautiful Book White Dog Arrives
July 13, 2020
BatCat Press’ Call for Submissions, Plus from the Archives:
“Out of the Forest of Noise: On Publishing the Literary Short Story”
May 13, 2019
From the Archives: 5 Super Simple Tips for Better Book Design
February 14, 2022
IBPA’s “Publishing University” 2015:
My Notes on Four Outstanding Talks on Selling Books,
Making Books, Metadata, and Video
–and a Felicitous Observation
June 19, 2015
Why Aren’t There More Readers? A Note on Curiosity, Creativity, and Courage
March 6, 2013
ON POST-PUBLICATION GUILT-MANAGEMENT
So How’s the Book Doing? (And how many copies have you sold?
And what was your print run?)
May 23, 2013
ON BLOGGING
On the 15th Anniversary of Madam Mayo Blog
April 19, 2021
Writers’ Blogs (and My Blog):
Eight Conclusions After 8 Years of Blogging
February 24, 2014
Several more posts on blogging to be migrated soon…
ON NURTURING YOUR VEHICLE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
OR,
BEYOND CHEETOS & ADVIL
A Writer’s 12 Minute Tonic: Annie Thoe’s Feldenkrais
“Sliding Thumbs” Exercise to Free Your Neck and Shoulders
December 9, 2019
Many more workshop posts, going back to 2006,
will be posted here shortly.
> Click here for C.M. Mayo’s schedule of events and workshops.
> Fab free writing workshop stuff
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